[ExpatInfoDesk]

Posted by Ed,  1 reply

Hello,

Here is a quick description of my situation:

I am a US citizen, and have been outside the US for 10 years.

I have been a resident of Estonia for 3 years. Moved to the UK in September 2014 and made only 5,900 USD. I think that I need to file a return for 2014.

Until 2014 I had no personal income.

I don’t have an address in the US. The last state I lived in was New Jersey.

I am married to a non-US citizen / non- US resident. I want to file “Married, filing separately”.

I have one non-US bank account with just a couple thousand dollars.

Please advise.

Thank you.

Best regards,
Ed

 

1 reply

bigBlueMango

The US Government requires all expats who have foreign bank accounts to report it to the IRS (search FBAR forms). Deadline is end of June every year and is easy to complete. If you made income, and you paid local tax (UK or Estonia), and can prove it, you won’t owe US income tax on US$5900. The limit is something like US$90,000 these days. The US government is the only country to tax its citizens abroad, unless they paid tax locally that exceeds what they would have paid in the US. I believe you’d have to file a New Jersey income statement as well. My accountant files in a state that I last lived in, even though I was resident in that state for only a year.

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